Tuberville among best coaches without a national title

Kyle Tucker, who covers Virginia Tech for The Virginian-Pilot, conducted an interesting poll leading up to the Hokies' season-opening showdown against Boise State on Monday night.

Tucker wanted to identify the best active college football coach without a national championship, so his enlisted his fellow voters for The Associated Press Top 25 Poll. Here is the top-10 list, and it includes Texas Tech coach Tommy Tuberville.

Tuberville, in his first season with the Red Raiders after a combined 14 years at Auburn and Mississippi, is ranked seventh in Tucker's poll, receiving 12 voting points and appearing on seven of 36 ballots. Tuberville came closest to winning a national crown in 2004, when his Tigers went undefeated but were passed over for the BCS title game, in which USC beat Okahoma.

I was one of the responders to the poll, but I did not vote for Tuberville. My top three, in order, were Kansas State's Bill Snyder, Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer and TCU's Gary Patterson, all of whom have enjoyed sustained success at the same school.

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